Lost Time - Fairly Good, Based on 8 Critics

Under The Radar - 70Based on rating 7/10

70

While Liars may have declared Drum's Not Dead way back in 2006, Fox Millions Duo are proving that today it's alive and kicking. On Lost Time, the pairing of Liturgy's Greg Fox and Oneida's Kid Millions team up to create an expansive 40 minutes of percussive mastery over two exhilarating, grey-matter-clattering cuts. One part drone, two parts freak jazz, all executed under the auspices of experimental noise, this is not a record for those seeking to be pacified by a short burst of melody.

Prolific, collaboration-happy avant-rock drummers Greg Fox and Kid Millions make up Fox Millions Duo, a noisy, hypnotic improvisational project. The duo's debut recording, Lost Time, was recorded in two separate marathon sessions, and each side-long piece reflects an entirely different state of mind. A-side "Telegy/Time Lapse" is frantic and caustic, with splattering drums endlessly pummeling away, punctuated by electronic noise bursts and distant shouts and wails.

The most surprising news about Lost Time—the two-track collaboration between Kid Millions and Greg Fox—is that it took so long to happen. Millions and Fox are the two busiest drummers in experimental music, bounding between projects with the zeal and energy of potent valence electrons. Both have bands that pushed them into prominence. For Millions, it’s the pantheistic weirdo crew Oneida, known for extended adventures into rock’s most distant corners, both onstage and off.

Head here to submit your own review of this album. Fox Millions Duo, as some people may deduce from the name, is a partnership between two of the finest drummers currently working within the world of experimental rock music - namely Greg Fox from Liturgy and Guardian Alien, and Kid Millions from Oneida, People of the North and Man Forever. Lost Time is their first collaborative release, the result of two six-hour recording sessions in Brooklyn late last year, when these in-demand musicians finally took got some time away from their other projects.

Fox Millions Duo — Lost Time (Thrill Jockey)It’s sort of funny, when you think about it, to name an album by two drummers Lost Time. Much of the time, these two guys — Kid Millions of Oneida/People of the North/etc. and Greg Fox of Liturgy/Guardian Alien (both with big all-encompassing et ceteras for all their side projects and one-off experiments) — are in charge of keeping time, or at least making sure it doesn’t get lost.

It's no surprise that "time" would figure as a prominent theme on an album by two drummers known for their manic tempos and rhythms. But on Lost Time, busy New York-based percussionists Greg Fox (Liturgy, Guardian Alien) and Kid Millions (Oneida, Man Forever) don't just play with traditional conceptions of musical time using their instrument of choice. Instead, through a variety of sonic textures and compositional approaches, they investigate the criss-crossing relationships between time, music, and the human body.

At the heart of experimental music is an aim toward the aspirational. High-minded tinkerers evoke future utopias for the world of organized sound, offering statements of what is and and imagining what could be. It’s a place where boundaries between the dance floor, the bedroom, and the lecture ….

​Drummers Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich once did battle. Then Rich took on Max Roach. The superstar jazz stickmen of Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones and Charlie Persip squared off famously at Birdland. For as long as there have been drums, there have been battles. Twice last year drummers ….